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Please help me.

Hi can anyone please help me. My cav is the most loving and affectionate little guy but i have a problem. While he is very placid with my husband, daughter and myself, whenever a visitor comes into our house he goes crazy. He starts jumping up on them and when they pick him up he starts jumping up at their faces. Sometimes with his mouth open which looks like hes ready to snap. He is uncontrolable when he does this. Some of my daughters friends are terified of him because he does this. My mother in law is over visiting from Scotland just now. This is the first time she has met Joey and although she thinks he is adorable she did say he needs disciplined. The thing is he never acts like this with us three. Only when a new face comes in to the house. It was really getting to me today and i just wanted to burst into floods of tears as i love him to death and i just want everyone else to love him too. Has anybody else ever had this experience before or maybe any advice. It would be so much appreciated. I just feel none of my visitors understand because they dont have dogs but i know all of you guys will. He is 7 months old so still very young but it is very stressful. Im getting to the point where im dreading visitors coming. Also today he had a scrunchie in his mouth which he found and it took me about 10 mins to get it off him. He would not drop it or let it go.

Cavaliers as puppies can get very hyper when visitors arrive at their house ~ especially if your daughter's friends are acting scared, it could make him even more excited. I would recommend either taking a training class or getting a good book on training, 7 months old is like a teenager so they often don't listen to us and act out often. There are techniques to train them how to "drop it" when they pick up something they shouldn't eat or chew on, a good command to know because it could save their lives if they pick up something dangerous.

For now, I would put his leash on when guests arrive and make him sit when he is greeting people. Ask the visitors to also remain calm, pet him & talk calmly when he is behaving and step back when he starts jumping. Keep him on the leash until he seems to be calmed down, and when you let him off, if he gets all hyper, put him back on. You can even have practice sessions with friends until he understands what you want from him.

Be patient with him and work with him and he will stop doing this and you will find that eveyone wants to come over all the time just to see your sweet lil guy.

At seven months he is very ready for obedience classes which will help him learn to focus on you and also have more self control. He should be getting the idea of learning to sit and wait quietly before being invited to accept attention-- this is the kind of training that really needs to happen at this age as it is harder to do this if you wait. Also training keeps him busy, gets him to think, and is fun!

Go for the puppy class and you will have a pup that knows all his basic commands and ALSO will have the chance of learning that bveing in a group of people and dogs isn't something he has to go crazy about. A major part of a puppy class like these is to make pups better social citizens. Also Lisa and Tara are great about giving people suggestions on exercises you can do at home to help work with these kinds of issues.

It can be hard sometimes to remember that other people don;t necessarily enjoy our dogs the same way we do (as we KNOW they are perfect! ) and that they can indeed be intimidating to older people, people who don't like dogs, or small children -- so it is always a great idea to have a dog that is self-controlled and polite.

Definitely try an obedience class. One thing I learned in class was "be a tree". When the dog start jumping up and trying to get you to pet him, fold your arms, stand straight and don't look down or acknowledge them. In other words "be a tree". Once they sit or at least stop jumping they get attention and praise.

I also agree with leashing them when guests come in. I did that with Jake and Shelby for a while. Once they realized they were going to get the leash they decided it would be better to just sit and behave

Thank you so much for your great advice. He is a great wee guy he just gets a bit over excited with visitors. Anyway Karlin i have booked him in for Tara & Lisas class which commences on 29 March at 7.30pm. I look forward to taking him there and letting him socialise with other dogs and humans. Thank you for recommending that class. I was going to ask you if you could recommend any. I am so glad i found this forum

Cedar, who has been through puppy class and basic obedience, and has earned her Canine Good Citizen certification, goes APE when she gets her mouth on a scrunchi. Drop it, leave it, whatever command I can generate, are meaningless if she gets one. I dont know why she's nuts about them, but she is. I've lost one to her already, and so now I'm hyper crazy about making sure I pick them up.